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Organized labor has opened fire on Amazon.com, with three union groups simultaneously announcing recruitment drives on Nov. 16. The Washington Alliance of Technology Workers (WashTech), a unit of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), is circulating a union-recognition petition among 450 Seattle-based Amazon customer-service representatives. WashTech was originally formed to help so-called "permatemp" programmers secure labor rights at Microsoft Inc.
Separately, the Prewitt Organizing Fund, a freelance union-recruitment outfit based in Washington, D.C., also launched a more ambitious effort to unionize all 5,000-or-so warehouse workers filling customer orders in Amazon's seven U.S. distribution centers. To make matters more complicated, the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW), which represents supermarket workers, also has begun passing out union authorization cards at several Amazon warehouses, according to UFCW spokesman Greg Denier. The UFCW had been working with Prewitt until several days ago, when it decided to mount its own recruitment drive.
CHRISTMAS DREAR? The unions hope to capitalize on Amazon's vulnerability as it enters the crucial holiday selling season. The company's growth -- sales totaled $1.6 billion in 1999 -- had been showing signs of slowing earlier this year, but analysts expect sales to reach $2.8 billion for 2000 with the help of an anticipated holiday rush. Still, the stock price remains in a slump: Amazon (
AMZN
) closed at $27.81 on Nov. 16, down from a high of $113 last December.
With investors more bearish about Amazon's prospects, Amazon CEO Jeffrey P. Bezos has been holding weekly meetings at his Seattle headquarters to make sure the company can handle the expected crush of holiday orders. Amazon has broadened its range of merchandise this year, now offering everything from lawn furniture to Cuisinarts.
Union leaders hope the threat of worker disruption will force Bezos to accept unionization. Their goals: to get the company to agree to quick elections and not campaign against them -- conditions unions have learned in recent years can be key elements in successful organizing drives. "This is the only leverage we have now, in the Christmas season," says Jennifer McDaeth, who started as a rep in Amazon's Seattle office last year but now works with WashTech.
Amazon isn't welcoming labor's effort. Says company spokesman Bill Curry: "Unions play a role in society. But they're not needed at Amazon.com because we offer the opportunity for ownership in the company."
LONG HOURS, LOW PAY. Some Amazon workers complain of their growing frustrations with a huge company that, they contend, still acts like a startup. Customer-service reps say they were happy at first to accept lower pay than they would have received in comparable jobs because of potentially lucrative options. Zach Works, a senior rep, says he started at $10 an hour two years ago -- $2 less than his previous job -- and has received options that now number 1,500 after stock splits. But his strike price of $21 means he would make little at today's price. "And I'm the exception, since most of my colleagues started later and are under water," he says.
Works and other reps claim management no longer listens to their problems. Workers routinely put in 50-hour weeks -- and sometimes spend 70 hours a week on the job in peak sales seasons, says McDaeth. She claims the company has changed workers' shifts, sometimes on as little as a day's notice, and made their jobs more stressful. "We're known as a customer-centric company, but all this makes it harder to do our job," says McDaeth.
About 50 reps showed up for a WashTech meeting on Nov. 15 and agreed to ask colleagues to help them form a union. They're calling their group Day2@Amazon.com, because "Bezos is always telling us, 'It's Day One, we can't stop or rest,' and we think five years of Day One is generating lots of problems for us," says Works. The group's mission statement calls on Amazon to make "a true commitment" to reps on compensation, job security, and respect. Reps also say they are worried that Amazon will move their jobs to new offices in Grand Forks, N.D., and Huntington, W.Va., where the company pays as little as $7 an hour.
MULLING THEIR OPTIONS. Unionizing warehouse workers might pose a more serious threat of disruption. With wages between $7.50 and $9.25 an hour and few benefits, these workers fill all the orders that Amazon receives, so a slowdown or walkout could seriously damage the company's ability to get through the holidays. Unlike the reps, they get only 100 options -- vested over five years -- in a retirement account, which could prove worthless given Amazon's sagging fortunes of late.
But these warehouse workers also could prove even more difficult to organize than service reps. The turnover rate for warehouse employees is high, and several Amazon distribution facilities have opened in the past year.
It's not yet clear just how much support the organizing efforts will receive from Amazon's workforce. But if workers go for the union label, Amazon's Christmas rush could be a bumpy ride.
By Aaron Bernstein in Washington, with bureau reports Edited by Douglas Harbrecht
Copyright 2000, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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